Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Faux Gajar Halwa -- carrots in the microwave

If you are the type who will spend hours standing in front of the stove coaxing a gajar to become a creamy, sweet, decadent halwa because you value time and quality and you are not the one to compromise...shoo, for this post is not for you.

This post is for the types who want to be the ever sacrificing Bollywood Mother feeding sons and daughters gajar ka halwa by the pounds but not ready to sacrifice their precious nap time for it. They also do not want to serve store bought or "Maine Banaya Gits se" kind of Gajar ka Halwa. They think that takes away the glamor from the sentence "Beta, aaj maine tere liye Gajjar Ka Halwa Banaya hai". For them the 20 minGajar ka Halwa in the Microwave comes in a super time saver pack. With this I am done with that, the stove top one, unless of course it is someone other than me sweating it out for hours on the stove top.

This microwave version of the Gajar Halwa was something I first had a friend's party. She, the friend, is a dessert queen of the Bread Pudding and Tiramisu fame. However this one time she completely ignored my e-mail and sent me the recipe only a day after I had made the darn Halwa. So the recipe I am sharing is not hers but is the one I loosely followed from Veggie Platterhere, but then again all of them are almost same with little differences here and there. Red Chilies also has a version here which does not use condensed milk but uses Milk Powder. Ultimately all of them lead to the same thing...Maa ke Haath ka Gajjar Halwa or maybe Baap ke Haath ka. Who cares?

Saturday Monday is Mahalaya, the occasion that heralds Goddess Durga and is the formal beginning of the Durga Pujo festival. I will not be up at 4 listening to Birendra Krishna Bhadra's chandipath on AIR But I might just make this Gajar Halwa again. You do too.

Put the bowl back in the microwave for around 5 mins. Careful that there are no spills. See I told you to get a deep bowl to start with.

Take it out. Stir,add few strands of saffron and put back again for 5 more mins.
Follow this pattern in slots of 3-5 mins till the moisture has evaporated and the carrots and milk come together in unison to form a halwa. You will know it when you see it. If you have never noticed a Gajar Ka Halwa look at the pic. In all it will take around 17-20 mins to be done. But then again it depends on the power of your microwave.

Meanwhile heat a tsp of ghee and roast the cashews and raisins. Garnish the halwa with the roasted nuts and the plumped up kishmish aka raisins.If you have varak, please go ahead and freak out. I love those silvery things for garnish but had none.

Ta Da. You are done and now you are all set to put your lazy self back to the couch.

The one time I bought it, I had asked the person at the checkout counter and they had got it. Ask at Patel. You can also buy it from Amazon, looks like the same thing though expensivehttp://www.amazon.com/Edible-Silver-Leaf-Square-Sheets/dp/B000YHCZWA

That sounds so simple and delicious. I used condensed and evaporated milk recently and have to admit it is ever so convenient to hasten the process of making those tedious desserts. Now only if I could get him to grate the carrots for me.BTW, is this your first dessert in the new kitchen and is it an indication of things to come?

No, no this was in the drafts. Made in old but we did have a portion of it in new. That doesn't count :(My friend grates it in her food processor, I have done the same bfore. This time since I recently hired help of a Gujarati babysitter, she did the grating thingy for me.

Halwa looks great and so easy to make! Going to make this for the Halloween party on the 31st :) ... now that i have this yummy yet tasty recipe :) thank you :)Any creative ideas to give it a scary look would be very welcome :)

That is a great idea to make it for Halloween. I guess you can shape them in rounds like laddoo or flat like peda and then decorate like you would for a spider cookie.I haven't worked with fondant or anything but I was just thinking, small rounds of this in cupcake liners and then stick in a fondant hand or something

Haha! Love your take on gajar halwa. I confess, I sometimes make the stove-top version, esp when I'm already doing something in the kitchen. Love those pics with the halwa on top of the puris..that's one combo that I haven't tried.

Loved the post! Though I am the kinds who loves to stand for hours to make "gajar ka halwa" so that I can feed myself, I like your recipe too! Hope to try it in the winters when we get red carrots here

Love you take on the gajar halwa, the less time consuming recipe is inviting too. I have to try it today. Just have one question- we are getting the orange carrots these days instead of red. will that work?

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About Me

Predominantly a Bong, who loves being a Mom and loves to cook among other things for the li'l one and the big ones.She loves to write too and you will find her food spiced up with stories. Mainly a collection of Bengali Recipes with other kinds thrown in, in good measure. A Snapshot of Bengali Cuisine